Masses of free e-papers on the market

When the WEMF published the 2014 circulation figures on October 1, the NZZ immediately sent out a communiqué in which it communicated its increased Replica circulation (e-paper). The statement read: "Thanks to the increased replica circulation, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Swiss edition) was able to compensate for the decline in print: With a total distributed circulation of 114,209, it remained virtually stable (-0.9%), while the NZZ am Sonntag even managed an increase of 2.5% to 135,805."

Half of the NZZ replicas are free of charge

The word "compensate" makes you sit up and take notice. After all, it's every publisher's dream to make up for the losses in (sold) print circulation with digital subscriptions. But the WEMF figures show that most publishers are still miles away from this. According to WEMF, many publishers are currently giving away a large proportion of their e-papers - including the NZZ. They are well aware of this at Zurich's Falkenstrasse. NZZ publishing boss Steven Neubauer, for example, had already indicated to persoenlich.com in mid-September that around 25 percent of the digital NZZ subscriptions were being given away for free. However, that was a bit of an understatement. In fact, the NZZ is giving away 8489 e-papers free of charge or at a discount of at least 80% (cheapest trial subscriptions), while the NZZ am Sonntag (NZZaS) is giving away 8879 subscriptions, i.e. a total of 17 368. That is not 25% of the digital subscriptions, but 51%. Important: Such a high proportion of free or cheapest subscriptions is neither forbidden nor disreputable, but absolutely legitimate and perhaps also clever in marketing terms. But if a press title gives away more than half of its (digital) subscriptions almost or completely free of charge, then it is foolhardy to speak of compensation. Even if the distributed circulation remains stable or increases as a result. Rather, the case of TagesWoche (see box) is a distant memory.

E-paper subscriptions do not outweigh print losses

In any case, there can be no talk of real compensation until the newly gained paid digital subscriptions outweigh the losses in paid paper subscriptions. And that is not the case with the NZZ. The two NZZ titles have lost a total of 12,142 print subscriptions within a year, and with declines of -6% (NZZaS) and -7% (NZZ), they are also among the top ten losers. In the same period, however, they gained "only" 5461 paying digital subscribers.

But that's not all: NZZ and NZZaS also sold fewer single copies. On weekdays, 460 fewer paid copies were sold, and on Sundays as many as 1679 fewer. The total loss was 2139 copies. These have to be added to the print subscription losses, because the NZZ titles do not yet offer an EV in the digital area. So NZZ and NZZaS together currently sell 14,281 fewer print copies than in 2013. This is offset by 5461 newly acquired paying e-paper subscribers. The loss is therefore offset by a "mere" 38%. In other words, the NZZ dream of compensation has been shattered - at least at this point in time. (Unfortunately.) While we are on the subject of NZZ: Here is another aspect that is interesting. Already a year ago it was noticeable that the "Alte Tante" and its Sunday edition gave away many free e-papers - at that time there were 5782 copies or 34% of the distributed digital circulation. These free copies have since tripled (+300%) - to the aforementioned 17,368 copies, which now account for 51% of the total digital circulation. The number of e-papers sold, on the other hand, increased by "only" 48% or 5395 copies. However, this includes not only new gains, but also subscription conversions. The question therefore arises as to whether this type of subscription marketing, which the NZZ has been pushing since 2011, is really sustainable and efficient.

All newspapers have the same problem

But the NZZ is by no means alone in this - what it is doing is now common practice in the industry, in some cases to an even more pronounced degree. Because almost all titles have the same basic problem: their distributed circulation (print and digital combined) is falling - with a few exceptions. In addition to NZZaS, these include St. Galler Tagblatt (SGT), which increased its circulation by 16% because it was able to integrate three former partners of Südostschweiz into its header system at the beginning of the year. However, La Regione Ticino, SonntagsZeitung and Basellandschaftliche Zeitung bz (4% each) and - to a lesser extent - La Liberté, Walliser Bote and Freiburger Nachrichten also gained in circulation.

The general decline in circulation is manifested - as at the NZZ - in two circulation categories: Paid print subscriptions and newsstands. The range of losses is wide: Ostschweiz am Sonntag shows the biggest drop in subscriptions with minus 32% (Werbewoche reported, see WW 17/14), while the Fribourg News shows a drop in subscriptions of only 1%. The others are in between. With three exceptions: Paying print subscribers were gained by Le Matin Dimanche (9%), bz (6%) and SonntagsBlick (0.5%). The decline in single-unit sales (EV) is even more drastic: with a minus of 90%, TagesWoche lost the most, while bz lost the least with minus 2%.

At least four newspapers were also able to increase their newsstand sales: The Zürichsee-Zeitung was able to increase by 21%, the Zürcher Oberländer by 12%, the Bieler Tagblatt by 1% and the Nordwestschweiz by 0.1%. To illustrate the latter, Peter Wanner's newspaper sold an average of two more EV copies per day than a year ago.

Digital circulation increased x-fold

The situation in the digital sector is quite different: as with the NZZ, there is obviously a spirit of optimism here - e-paper circulations are rising almost everywhere. Although the NZZ and NZZaS are the market leaders with 18,199 and 15,803 e-paper copies distributed, it is the Neue Luzerner Zeitung (NLZ) that has seen the most significant increase in the past year - from 222 to 2498 e-papers. An increase of more than ten times! The related Zentralschweiz am Sonntag (ZaS) is in second place, having increased by a factor of 7 to 1760 e-papers. Bronze goes to the SGT, which increased its digital circulation fivefold to 2623 replicas. Fourth place goes to Schaffhauser Nachrichten, whose digital circulation grew by 442% to 667 replicas. The other titles in the top ten: Zürcher Unterländer (+186%), Schweiz am Sonntag, Nordwestschweiz edition (+162%), NZZaS (+129%), Tages-Anzeiger (+117%), Landbote (+108%) and Schweiz am Sonntag, entire edition (+106%).

However, there are also three titles that have suffered losses in digital circulation: La Regione Ticino, for example, shows a decline of 21%, Südostschweiz 1% and Le Matin 0.3% (which corresponds to an average of two copies). Furthermore, three pay newspapers do not have digital circulation certified: Blick, Sonntags- Blick and TagesWoche.

Free e-paper: Almost everyone follows the "Old Auntie

Almost all titles that have their digital circulation certified have greatly increased their share of free copies compared to the previous year. The NLZ is once again in the lead, having distributed 21 free replicas in 2013, but now has 2468, i.e. 95 times more. ZaS uses this channel 66 times more than a year ago, the SGT 22 times more. This is followed by Schaffhauser Nachrichten (9× more), NZZaS (4×), Tages-Anzeiger and Zürcher Unterländer (3× each) and NZZ and Landbote (2½× each). Some newspapers that did not give away free e-papers last year have now also jumped on this marketing method, including BaZ, Nordwestschweiz, Berner Zeitung, Bund and Ostschweiz am Sonntag. The Walliser-Bote and Freiburger Nachrichten, on the other hand, continue to refrain from handing out free e-papers.

As already shown with the example of the NZZ, the current digital circulation therefore contains a very large proportion of free or low-cost e-papers almost everywhere (see upper chart p. 24). At the NLZ, the free share is the highest - it now amounts to 80%. ZaS, La Regione Ticino and Schaffhauser Nachrichten each have 79% free e-papers, Le Quotidien Jurassien has a share of 76%, Südostschweiz 65%, Le Matin semaine 64% and Corriere del Ticino 62%. The NZZ titles and their free shares follow only in 11th place (NZZaS, 56%) and 14th (NZZ, 47%).

Replica sales increase less strongly

However, not only the free replicas, but also the paid digital subscriptions have increased within a year. The SGT, for example, increased its paid e-papers by 853 copies or 220%, the Zürcher Unterländer by 127 copies or 186%, Schweiz am Sonntag, Nordwestschweiz edition, gained 809 paying subscribers (+178%), NLZ 295 subscriptions (146%), Le Matin Dimanche 587 copies (135%) and Tages-Anzeiger gained 1397 paying subscribers thanks to or despite the paywall introduced in spring, more than doubling its number (111%). NZZaS and NZZ follow in 17th and 18th place with increases of 53% and 46% respectively.

But the most important question is whether there are any paid newspapers that can make up for their print subscription losses with new paid digital subscriptions. The answer is clearly no. But the differences are big. The most successful at compensating is La Liberté, which loses 596 print subscriptions and gains 386 paid EPaper subscribers. The e-paper subscriptions thus substitute the print subscription loss by 65% (see bottom chart p. 24). However, if the losses from retail sales were also included here, the degree of coverage would be somewhat lower. With 59% the second best compensator is L'Express, followed by L'Impartial with 48%. In 4th and 6th place are NZZ (47%) and NZZaS (42%), with La Regione Ticino in between with 45%. The lowest compensation success is achieved by Zürcher Oberländer (2%) and BaZ and Le Quotidien Jurassien (3% each).

Online user figures confirm e-paper trend

The fact that more and more publishers are now launching free e-papers on the market is also partly reflected in the user figures from NET-Metrix-Audit. Whether unique clients, visits or page impressions - the newspapers are registering increasing accesses. Of course, there are also exceptions: The Tages-Anzeiger, for example, has seen a significant drop in traffic since the introduction of the paywall in March. But beware: The Total Audience study by WEMF and NET-Metrix, which once a year reports the user base of newspaper titles and their digital offerings without any overlap, essentially confirms what is also evident in the circulation figures: Very few titles can replace their lost print readers with online users. However, the WEMF is trying to clear the fog here. In order to provide publishers with a more detailed breakdown of the use of their digital offerings in the future, it will supplement Mach Basic with reader figures for e-papers in a year's time. And before the end of the year, a test study will show which devices are used to access newspapers' digital offerings. In parallel, the Internet research company NET-Metrix is working on a technical measurement solution. This should be ready next year, they say.

Markus Knöpfli

Special cases TagesWoche and BaZ

At the beginning of the year, it emerged that the Tageswoche (TW) delivered around half of its paid circulation (26,358 copies at the time) to the airports in Basel and Zurich and had it placed there free of charge in a countertrade. Although this was in compliance with the rules, it was non-transparent. As a result, TW cancelled the "airport subscriptions", which is now also reflected in the new circulation figures: The sold circulation is only 5682 copies, but the free circulation increased to 18 164 copies (plus almost 9000%!). The latter is now distributed weekly to households in the Basel region for marketing purposes. At the Basler Zeitung (BaZ), too, the sold subscription circulation included around 1800 airport copies daily, also in return business. According to publishing director Sabine Galindo, there are now 1700 copies, but they are no longer counted as subscriptions, but now also as free circulation. Part of the loss of subscriptions at BaZ (which has a total of 5626 fewer subscriptions) can therefore be attributed to this shift. Incidentally, the WEMF has decided that countertrades must be reported separately at the next certification in summer 2015. mk